Brewing Up Some Fun

Trail ace Tom Borschel hits the road in search of adventures

In astronomical terms, a supernova is a stellar explosion that can briefly outshine an entire galaxy. Supernovae typically occur just once every 50 years. But for Tom Borschel – who hit the half-century mark himself this year – a supernova has been known to occur several times every year.

Then again, Borschel, a member of the La Sportiva Mountain Running Team who won his age group at the Masters World Mountain Running Championships in Italy in 2004, is a bursting star of energy who dominates in two realms that are near and dear to the hearts of many trail runners: He loves challenging uphill races and is equally accomplished as a handcrafted beer brewer and beer judge.

Normally the pinnacle for an uphill running specialist would be the top of the mountain, but for Borschel the apex often entails a flash of extra effort that has taken on the moniker of "supernova weekend." Borschel's supernova weekends are short bursts when "you pack in as much adventure, travel, and exuberance as possible," including running races, soaks in natural hot springs, peak bagging, golf and microbrewery visits.

In the late 1970s, Borschel, a native of Utah who now lives near Idaho Falls, Idaho, and works as a project engineer for the decommissioning of a high-risk nuclear facility at the Idaho National Laboratory, was an aspiring member of the Golden Bear Track Club in the San Francisco Bay Area and later a Reebok-sponsored runner who broke 30 minutes for 10K and ran a 2:21 marathon. He trained under the late Brian Maxwell, who started PowerBar out of his kitchen and used Borschel and his clubmates as guinea pigs for his early concoctions.

Although primarily a road runner in those days, Borschel was one of the few who worked trail events into his racing schedule. He twice finished in the top 10 at Bay to Breakers, but also set the still-standing Mt. Tam Hill Climb record of 30:32, and ran the Dipsea, Squaw Peak Hill Climb, Wasatch Steeplechase and other trail races around the West.

The very first supernova adventure materialized spontaneously when Borschel and friend Tad Beach, heading back to the Bay Area, stopped near the town of Bishop, Calif., to run up 14,246-foot White Mountain in lightweight racing flats. "I chased Tom up about 5,000 feet to a point where I was not only exhausted but moving into a snow cloud wearing shorts and shoes with no traction," Beach recalls. "Looking back down, I was terrified. I had to beg Tom to back down and call it a day. We were young and incredibly fit and had no idea what we were doing. We made it back down to the ghost town for a night of discussions about the endless possibilities of our new-found way of abusing ourselves."

It was about the same time Borschel developed an interest in home brewing. He had taken a trip to Europe after college and, upon his return, missed the flavorful beers he discovered there. After much trial and error, he became a self-taught brewing expert and, later, a nationally certified beer judge who has presided over numerous homebrew and commercial competitions.

When Borschel and his wife, Gwen, settled in Idaho, he began raising his own hops for many of the brews he develops. He also grows raspberries and strawberries for smoothies, makes wine from his apple and plum trees, and roasts his own coffee. He has picked up brewing pointers from the hundreds of breweries he has visited during countless supernova road trips.

"It's so hard to choose a favorite beer," he says. "But if I could only have one beer the rest of my days it would be Einbecker Ur-bock, out of northern Germany."

On a recent supernova weekend, Borschel left Idaho Falls on a Thursday afternoon, picked up friend Wes Martin in Park City, Utah, and made a visit to Bitter Creek Brewery in Rock Springs, Wyo. From there, they drove to Saratoga Hobo Hot Springs, where they found a campsite, had a soothing soak, played "tundra golf" in flowery meadows at sundown and dined on Ramen with margaritas made from a hand-crank blender.

The next morning they drove to Fort Collins, Colo., where they played nine holes of golf and took a private tour and tasted behind-the-scenes brews at the New Belgium Brewery. On Saturday, Borschel took sixth overall and first in his age group in the Lookout Mountain Hill Climb, a 4.5-mile dirt road race with 1,900 feet of vertical gain in Golden. Then he cheered on former Lockheed Martin colleagues at the National Corporate Track Meet in suburban Denver and visited the Golden City Brewery. Sunday found Borschel, Martin and a few friends hiking up and down 14,255-foot Longs Peak in Rocky Mountain National Park. After another night of camping, Borschel dropped off Martin and returned to Idaho Falls to complete a 1,400-mile odyssey.

"Many folks have joined and supported me on these adventures for the past 20-odd years," he says. "All of these guys are fun hogs of various backgrounds and have made these debacles most memorable."